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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJune 26, 2024 - Town of Enfield Special Town Board Meeting Minutes-VF11 Town of Enfield Special Town Board Meetfng Wednesday, June 26, 2024 6:30 PM In-person and via the Zoom Meetfng Platiorm Present: Town Supervisor Stephanie Redmond; Town Councilpersons, Robert Lynch, Jude Lemke, Melissa Millspaugh; Highway Superintendent Buddy Rollins; Town Clerk Mary Cornell Virtual Attendance: Councilperson Cassendra Hinkle Call to Order: Supervisor Redmond called the meetfng to order at 6:30 PM Privilege of the Floor: Supervisor Redmond thanked those that were in attendance and encouraged them to attend future meetfngs and mentfoned committees that individuals could volunteer for. Councilperson Lynch led the assemblage in the Pledge of Allegiance and thanked the audience for attending tonight ’s meetfng. Additfons and Changes to the Agenda: N/A Correspondence: N/A New Business: Discussion: Supervisor Redmond asked those in attendance to please keep this discussion civil and to be considerate of others. Donna Stallman – Resident of Van Ostrand Rd – She asked Buddy to introduce himself, he introduced himself. Lou Modre – Resident of Rockwell Road - he is here to hear comments and what the determinatfon is of the meetfng tonight. He is concerned with the two trees that are in his front yard and does not want them cut down. John Freideborn – Resident of Bostwick Rd. He owned Cayuga Tree care and has vast experience with tree care. He was a certffied arborist for many years. He took a ride over to Rockwell Road as this seems to be the current focus. He made observatfons and recommendatfons; he is more or less in agreement with Jean Grace. He thinks that it has been over pruned. The Willows, Sugar Maples, bad pruning results in decay and issues down the road. He is commentfng on standard of practfce and the city is different than rural regions. The basic pruning practfces are not any different. He could tell you 10 years from know which trees will be problems. He feels that we could do a lot better, maybe training should take place. Andrea Sutton – 308 Hines Rd. She has loved this area, mostly because of the trees. She has lived in a lot of rural areas and she wants to do a shout out to Buddy and his crew, as they do a great job taking care of the roads in this town. She thought it was a little out of character that maybe this is a new problem and since he has been doing his job for 16 years, she is not sure what the issues are… Bob & Laurie McCarney – Resident of Rockwell Rd. He is concerned for the trees as he walks the road daily. He likes the shade the trees supply, when it is windy the trees help block the wind and he walks the roads year-round. The really cold parts are by the fields where there are no trees. He lives next to the campground and he sees a lot of people walking up and down the road. Laurie is concerned as they live near the campground, Willow trees have been cut down, which has taken away their privacy. The purpose of willow trees is to suck up water, to minimize standing water. These trees were healthy trees and she had enjoyed the shade from them. 2 Charles Elrod – Residents of Rockwell Road. Stephanie shared a picture that Charles had provided for discussion purposes. He shared that the town has had several roads paved in the past couple of years and the roads chosen were done so without consultatfon of town residents. He visited with Buddy in his office last week and Buddy told him that he can do what needs to be done with consultfng town residents. Buddy shared his legal obligatfons with Charles. Charles was concerned that Buddy can do as he sees fit without any oversight or approval of the Town Board. He shared an example of the Maple Stump that is on Porter Hill Rd. He believes that an overreach has taken place as it was more than 30’ from the center of the road. He shared a case study from Coddington Rd, Hanshaw Rd. Public use only extend to the use of the highway, in the case of Rockwell Rd it is only ~10 ft from the edge of the road. It appears the trimming was inconsistent, some areas are hazards, and there is canopy off of Porter Rd that was not completed. He does not agree with the ratfonal that it needs to be cleared in order to be paved. He shared a picture of a tfny branch that was in front of his house, is a risk to the road? Does the whole tree need to be taken down? If safety is the concern, there is a 45’ locust that is dead, but has not been taken care of and he is worried about this tree coming down in bad weather. He would like the highway department to stop the severe cutting and if there is an issue, then have a discussion with the property owner. He would also ask that the staff receive arborist training, so they are better prepared to preserve the trees in the best ways possible. Tomas R. 211 Gray Rd. He would like to address the argument from Mr. Rollins - cutting trees and branches to allow the sun to shine to assist with the meltfng of the snow that is on the road. The future looks like we need to have any shade that we can have as it will only get worse not better. If we don’t have the trees, what will contain the water? We may end up having miniature landslides. The trees are our friends and we need to protect them. With the way the cutting has taken place it would take 50 or more years for adequate regrowth. Joe Faozo – He has a lot to say. He moved here from Delaware and he works for Pinecreek Campground, and Stonebend Farm as a groundskeeper. In the truck driving business, you have to have clearance, you have to have the branches out of the way to allow for adequate height and width. We need the trees, and we need shade. He is on both sides of the fence. There are many ways to assist with meltfng the snow, but it won’t melt when temperatures are below 30 degrees. Some of it may be a little bit of an overkill which is what got this conversatfon started. He has heard others say they have expertfse that may be willing to assist with tree cutting going forward. He thinks the highway department is doing a great job, but believes that we can find a happy medium. Denny Hubbell – resident of Hubbell Drive. He is here tonight to share that roads need adequate clearance for large equipment (Fire Trucks, etc.) so the roads need to be cleared. By not doing so damage to the vehicles can be expensive. It is really important that we keep adequate height clearance, so that we can keep people and vehicles safe. The Fire Company assisted last week in many downed trees in the Town. Buddy and his crew are doing a great job keeping things cut back, with width and height taken into consideratfon. Matt Gordon – resident of Harvey Hill Rd. Everything that has been said tonight covers his thoughts. He had a lot of tree trimming done on his road that was done by NYSEG that appeared very aggressive to him. A maple was lopped off at 5’ height seemingly for no reason and other trees that they have been managing had aggressively been cut. He would like a mutual agreement be made to answer all the concerns and stfll have the highway department in compliance. He hates the idea of trees being more exposed, because of poor or uniformed tree work. Courtney – Resident of Harvey Hill Rd. she appreciates everyone’s comments tonight and she mostly wanted to come and support her neighbors on Rockwell Rd and Porter Hill Rd. She was curious of her property on Harvey Hill Rd that has a large maple tree and if there is plan for this tree to be cut? She would like better communicatfon before work is completed on resident ’s trees and if they can be given the opportunity to first complete the work themselves. Julie Magura – She loves her home off of Rte. 327, she lives on Rockwell Road. when she saw the tree trimming/cutting she felt a massacre had taken place. The willows were cut well over 40’ up, she knows such harsh cuts can have devastatfng effect on trees. Cutting trees aggressively and haphazardly is not pruning. She is here to fight for her town 3 and would like Mr. Rollins to think about those that are enjoying the beauty of our small rural town. Now all she can wonder while driving through the town is when is the next tree going to be cut down. Jean Grace is an arborist for Ithaca – She is not speaking for or on behalf of the City of Ithaca. She and her husband moved here 7 years ago. Her husband was a park ranger for over 40 years. She doesn’t want to repeat everything that was said tonight. She is grateful to live in this community. She is sad that the opportunity was not given to residents before actfon took place. On Van Ostrand Rd., not only were trees cutdown, but soil was taken away and there is a tunnel on the very end of Van Ostrand Rd, and trees were removed. She wants to know what is going to happen to the Road when there is heavy rain. Why were residents not contacted and discussions taken place before work had taken place. Supervisor Redmond asked Buddy to address the issues presented tonight. Buddy spoke first on Van Ostrand Rd. He had spoken to the residents where the dirt was removed from. They did not widen the road and the road was cut back to dig a ditch. The bank will be hydroseeded. He had to wait untfl soil and water could schedule the work. She wants to know why healthy trees were cut and why the road was widened. There was an issue on the other end of the road. What about the soil that has been taken out 5’ behind mailboxes, she doesn’t understand why the soil was removed, now it seems like the mailboxes are now in the road. She feels like it would have been better if the whole community had known what was going on. Buddy responded that if work is going to happen in front of a person’s property, he will speak to the homeowners directly. The Hydroseed will hold back erosion. She can’t understand how the hydroseeding will help the bank. Buddy explained that he uses the same procedure on each road. If you have trees on the bank they can assist when stabilizing the banks. Denny explained that Buddy is completely correct. He worked for the Highway Department in the past and when they had originally worked on these roads, they were not maintained correctly and this problem has evolved over many years of maintenance not being taken care when needed. If you keep things cut back then you won’t have these issues. John F. One of the things that he really notfced is that telescoping platiorm piece of equipment, in his 50 years of doing tree work he had not used a piece of equipment like that which was used. There are a lot of stubs that didn’t need to be cut as they were not a threat to safety. Buddy tries to leave anything with green on it that they can. The general guideline of 20-25 % of guidelines. Willows and Maples, but not Sugar Maples as they are not forgiving. If you have a 10” stub and a 2” branch stub there is not enough left for the tree. Buddy shared that he is pretty proud of Bostwick Rd this year and it did look bad last year as it was just cut. The current procedure is to cut anything overhanging the road. Joe asked if there is a way to keep a canopy as the city of Ithaca has Canopy. What is a happy medium that we can agree too. It was suggested that we all attend these meetfngs. Communicatfon seems to be an issue. Andrea, is this the first tfme there have been complaints? Lori Elrod a Rockwell Rd Resident. Extreme cutting has taken place. Could we stop anymore extreme cutting taking place. Councilperson Lemke - is there a way that training could be provided to the Highway Department on property tree trimming. Courtney asked if this could be something that could be put in a town policy. Supervisor Redmond asked those in attendance to attend Planning Board Meetfng’s or Town Boards Meetfng. Councilperson Lynch had some thoughts on his document from the Comptroller ’s office. West Salem Conservatfon Advisory Board was attemptfng to dictate to the Highway Superintendent on how to cut trees. Would it be beneficial for our town to create a conservatfon council? John F said he may be willing to come out and look at the trees with Buddy and they can have a conversatfon. Buddy shared that Rockwell Rd stfll needs some work and he would be willing to accept John’s assistance it what needs to be 4 done on the rd. Chain of command on the tree cutting and who is in control, those in the trucks who made the decisions to cut the trees, is it the guys who make the decisions. Buddy replied that the roads are preplanned. Lori thanked Buddy for being willing to listen to the residents and compromising. Supervisor Redmond compared to other towns we have good town roads. Councilperson Lynch do the residents want Rockwell Rd paved? Yes, they do want it paved at this tfme. Joe thanked Buddy for meetfng with residents tonight and being willing to compromise. Adjournment of Special Meetfng: Councilperson Lemke motfoned to adjourn, adjourned at 8:44 PM. Supervisor Redmond moved and Councilperson Lemke seconded to go into Executfve Session Entered into Executfve Session at 8:44 PM and Returned from Executfve Session at 9:05 PM. Respectiully submitted, Mary Cornell Mary Cornell Town Clerk